•••
16
WEST VALLEY VIEW NEWS | SEPTEMBER 29, 2021
For more sports visit WestValleyView.com WestValleyView.com
/WestValleyView
Wrestling sisters look to take state championship titles BY LAUREN SERRATO
Erica and Lisa Pastoriza have been training together since the beginning of their wrestling careers. The junior and freshman are state champion hopefuls as they compete for their first season at Sierra Linda High School. (Photo courtesy of David Pastoriza)
DENTAL Insurance If you’ve put off dental care, it’s easy to get back on track. Call Physicians Mutual Insurance Company now for inexpensive dental insurance. Get help paying for the dental care you need. Don’t wait.
Getting back to the dentist couldn’t be easier!
CALL TODAY
1-855-389-4273 Dental50Plus.com/214
Get your
FREE
Information Kit
Product not available in all states. Includes the Participating (in GA: Designated) Providers and Preventive Benefits Rider. Acceptance guaranteed for one insurance policy/certificate of this type. Contact us for complete details about this insurance solicitation. This specific offer is not available in CO, NY; call 1-800-969-4781 or respond for similar offer. Certificate C250A (ID: C250E; PA: C250Q); Insurance Policy P150 (GA: P150GA; NY: P150NY; OK: P150OK; TN: P150TN). Rider kinds: B438, B439 (GA: B439B). 6208-0721
West Valley View Staff Writer
S
tanding at 4-foot-10-inches, a junior at Sierra Linda High School has proven that her size does not play a factor in her ability to win. Erica Pastoriza began wrestling at 8 years old, after watching her older brother become a high school state champion. She’s now looking to achieve the same feat for the Sierra Linda Bulldogs when the season starts Feb. 19. Erica has many wrestling accolades under her belt. It includes winning the women’s wrestling 88-pound weight division finals at the 2021 World Cadet Championships in Budapest. “It was really fun going out there and wrestling people from other countries. I never thought I would do it, but it was really fun,” she said. Aside from the trophies, for Erica it’s the places wrestling has taken her and the friends made along the way that makes the sport her absolute passion. “It’s all the traveling and the friends I make. I get to see a bunch of new places, and I get to meet a bunch of new people,” she said.
Just like Erica watched her older brother wrestle, Erica’s younger sister Lisa is right on her tracks at the age of 14 and already a state champion hopeful in her weight class. For Lisa, wrestling has been part of her life for as long as she can remember, as she grew up watching her siblings compete and then began training at 6 years old. “I feel like I’m used to it. To me, it’s fun. Wrestling is really all we do, it’s a lifestyle,” she said. The freshman and junior are training partners, with a strict routine that keeps them at the top of their game during the season and the offseason. Their mornings start at 5 a.m. with a 3-mile run, then it’s off to Sierra Linda for a full day of school. After returning home, the girls have two-hour practices at their gym, Grand House Wrestling in Glendale. “Training with my sister, there’s always someone there to push you,” Erica said. Lisa’s goal is to make the world team, like her sister, and compete in the next competition in Russia. In what many still assume is a male-dominated sport, the Pastoriza sisters took that notion by the horns and have competed against boys for most of their athletic careers, and won a vast majority of the time. During Erica’s freshman year on the varsity wrestling team at Raymond S. Kellis High School, she competed in 20 matches against male opponents, only losing twice. “We’ve wrestled a lot of boys, just because there weren’t girls on the other varsity teams. Now that the sport is growing and there are more girls wrestling, we will wrestle more girls,” Erica said. Erica was unable to compete during her sophomore year, as the pandemic red-lighted the season. Now, as a junior, Erica will compete in the 100-pound
Sisters...continued on page 17
